Script Analysis: “Nightmare Alley” — Part 5: Dialogue

A week-long analysis of the thriller script and movie. Download. Read. Discuss.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Dialogue.

My working principle is this: Dialogue equals conversation with purpose. What monologues, sides, or exchanges in Nightmare Alley stood out for their purposefulness with regard to the overall story?

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan, novel by William Lindsay Gresham

Plot summary: A grifter working his way up from low-ranking carnival worker to lauded psychic medium matches wits with a psychiatrist bent on exposing him.

Major kudos to Valerie Kalfrin for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown , go here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Plot discussion, go here.

For Part 3, to read the Character discussion, go here.

For Part 4, to read the Themes discussion go here.

To access over 100 analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Nightmare Alley.